JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli and Palestinian Arab negotiators achieved significant progress yesterday toward ending violence and resuming peace talks, completing a plan for deploying Palestinian Arab forces in the southern Gaza Strip and aiming for a summit within two weeks between the Israeli and Palestinian Arab leaders.

And there were signals that Condoleezza Rice, the Bush administration’s newly confirmed secretary of state, would be joining the peace process soon.

“She is planning to go to the region,” Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said after a meeting with Ms. Rice yesterday.

“I think it will be in a short time,” the Israeli official said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “It will be a positive step.”

New violence, however, underscored the fragility of the new momentum for peace. A Palestinian Arab preschooler in southern Gaza was killed by Israeli gunfire after terrorists fired a rocket at Israel. Israeli troops shot a Palestinian Arab terrorist to death and wounded two others in a West Bank arrest raid.

About 100 Jewish settlers disrupted a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian Arab commanders in southern Gaza, throwing stones and slashing tires of participants’ vehicles.

None of this appeared to spoil a new flurry of peace moves offering the prospect of an end to four years of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed, following the November 11 death of Palestinian Arab leader Yasser Arafat.

A senior aide to Prime Minister Sharon and a Palestinian Cabinet Minister sat down together to discuss the summit idea and an emerging truce deal – the first high-level diplomatic contact between the two sides in months.

“These talks are promising in all aspects,” Palestinian Arab leader Mahmoud Abbas said.

Palestinian Arabs said they expect to take control of five West Bank cities within 10 days, and Israel indicated it would refrain from targeted killings of terrorists.

After cutting off ties with Palestinian Arabs two weeks ago in response to a militant attack in Gaza that killed six Israelis, Israel resumed diplomatic contacts yesterday.

Sharon aide Dov Weisglass and Palestinian Arab Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat met for two hours and concurred that their bosses would meet as soon as the two sides agree on an agenda, participants said. Mr. Erekat and Mr. Weisglass were to meet again next week.

Palestinian Arab official Hassan Abu Libdeh said a summit could be held within two weeks. Mr. Sharon spokesman Ranaan Gissin confirmed a summit is planned, but said “our main concern is security – that the Palestinians continue to take additional steps to end the violence, terrorism, and incitement.”

Palestinian Arabs want the agenda to focus on other issues, such as the release of Palestinian Arab prisoners and stopping Israel’s construction of the separation barrier in the West Bank.

Speaking in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Mr. Abbas said the Palestinian Arabs asked the Israelis to release “an initial group of prisoners, and we asked that the release be in coordination with us.”

Mr. Abbas also expressed concern about an arrest raid yesterday in the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, where the army shot three men it said were wanted terrorists. Maher Abu Sneineh, 24, was killed and two were seriously wounded.

“The Israelis are continuing with these operations,” Mr. Abbas said. “They know that we are fully committed to calming things down and they have to be responsible. They have to stop these operations so as not to ruin our efforts.”

In Gaza, masked Palestinian Arabs claiming to represent the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade threatened to renew attacks if Israel does not stop such operations within 24 hours.

Security officials said Abu Sneineh was planning a suicide bombing attack in which a female bomber would blow herself up in the Israeli city of Kfar Saba.

A senior American envoy, William Burns, arrived yesterday for talks with top Israeli and Palestinian Arab officials. After meeting the Israeli vice premier, Shimon Peres, Mr. Burns said Washington is committed to taking advantage of what it sees as “a very promising moment.”

Mr. Abbas has won wide praise in recent days for securing a pledge from terrorist groups such as Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade to call a temporary halt to attacks against Israelis.

That achievement, combined with Arafat’s death and Israel’s planned withdrawal this year from the Gaza Strip, is reviving hope that Israelis and Palestinian Arabs can resume peace talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state. Israel charged that Arafat was tainted with violence but considers Mr. Abbas a pragmatic moderate.

“We’ve been very encouraged by steps that Mr. Abbas has taken on security, by the Israeli reaction to those steps,” Mr. Burns said.

Palestinian Arab policemen already have deployed in northern Gaza, preventing rocket attacks against Israelis for the past five days. The Israeli military said at least one rocket was fired from southern Gaza yesterday, however, where the police have not yet deployed. Israeli troops responding to a rocket fired by terrorists in central Gaza also killed a young Palestinian Arab girl in the town of Deir el-Balah, her relatives said.

Israeli and Palestinian Arab commanders met twice yesterday at a key junction in southern Gaza to finalize the deployment of Palestinian Arab forces in the area, and Israel approved the plan, officials said. Both sides denied reports the deployment had begun.